Pac-Man et les Aventures de fantômes

I grew up watching this. Went back and checked it out semi recently. It's fine. Honestly for how bare bones Pac-Man as a series is (even the world games are pretty basic 3D platformers without much meat in terms of anything you'd derive a narrative from) it's kind of impressive what they did manage to throw together.

The visuals are probably the best part of this. Considering it's 3D animation for a network television show, this could have just looked cheap and bad. But they managed to create a style that's clean enough to avoid that. Backgrounds are simple but they manage to make that the style. It's hard to explain, you'd need to seek out screenshots or scenes to see what I mean. It looks very video gamey. That's a positive. (and funnily enough it got a couple of games.) It's not groundbreaking but I think the artists deserve the praise for managing a very stylistically appealing show.

The writing is where it starts to feel a bit bumpy. This is a kids show, and while I totally agree that just because someone for kids doesn't mean it's ok to be bad, nor am I saying this is entirely bad. It's what it says on the tin. It's a very basic threat of the week show with a sort of overarching mystery that's nebulous enough to serve as a solid enough foundation for weekly hijinks without being a ticking clock problem that would make anyone stressed or annoyed with a lack of narrative progression. (Though the show would never get a chance to wrap this up, with the final episode ending on a... cliffhanger? Sort of.)

The titular pac man's parents were explorers so most episodes have some amount of "my parents might have been here, that's just cause enough for us to go here." Plus "we can also deal with whatever immediate problem not skeletor is causing."

It's a tried and true setup for a show. Love it or hate it. Your mileage will vary. If you're an adult reviewing this in all seriousness then I think you're setting yourself up for failure. This is by no means the worst show on the planet, nor is it a masterpiece. Though shockingly it's probably among the better video game "adaptations" out there. Low bar but hey that's still clearing it. Again there's not a lot to pull from in terms of the greater Pac-Man extended media, so it woulda cleared it anyway. Still...

Though I will say, due to the artstyle and it being a game adaptation, I noticed that more often than not, the episodes felt like levels out of a video game. Sure a kids show having episodes end with a giant monster fight isn't new, but this felt like they tried to make it feel like something out of an actual video game. In fact that happens quite a bit. There's powerups Pac-Man uses that feel like out of a video game (which were adapted to the aforementioned video games this show did get) there's rules and concepts to locations and items that feel like status effects or abilities from a video game. Maybe I was just imposing this onto the show, seeing things that weren't there. But I mean if you're watching a video game show and it starts to feel like a video game, then isn't that a good thing regardless of wether it was intentional?

Characters are simple enough, with the various villains being the highlights, which the showrunners seemingly understood because they're in the show quite often. Walmart brand skeletor is a solid enough villain for what this show is and is probably the best part.

Listen, I don't know how many ways I can say "this show is exactly what you'd think it's gonna be"

It's exactly what you think it's gonna be. If a show about teens written by adults who don't know how teens act for an audience of little kids doesn't seem your fancy then I can't imagine why you'd seek it out.

I think it's charming. At times so bad it's good and others just actually good. Well, good for what it is.

As it is I think it's harmless. Certainly worse kids shows exist. Worse video game adaptations exist.

Erin Matthews hasn't really been in much before Kid vs. Kat, but I feel that she gradually became a popular VA icon with Disney XD for both that show and this one, Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures. Like Samurai Jack, the writers of this show are smart enough to keep up the good work more than half the time and almost always have good episodes, which makes it worth while for The Mysterious Mr. Enter to review the 10 best of all 52 of them in Admirable Animations.

Like My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, this is a new show in a new generation of a toy/video game franchise that's a lot more interesting than what came before it because you can assume that original fans of Pac-Man or My Little Pony that were kids in the 1980s or 1990s grew up to make this newer version with more substance and better characters. I can even recognize Cylindria, Pinky, Inky and Skeebo as the voices of Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Snips and Soarin because I know they are the same VAs. I'm glad they found a new show after 3 seasons of MLP so they're not stuck with the same show forever and have time to voice act in another one.

Pac-Man is the Samurai Jack of the show, the noble hero who can fight almost anything, but still has his flaws and limitations. Betrayus is Aku, the hard-to-defeat villain who's very hammy. After 52 episodes, you wonder how the overall premise of the series is going to conclude and you want to see how Samurai Pac-Man eventually finally permanently removes Aku/Betrayus from existence. Let's just hope that if such a revival does come up that ties up all the loose ends from the beginning, it's not an adult audience revival like Samurai Jack, because that will really ruin what made the original kids show great and turn our hero into something really cruel and awful that even the villain would be scared to see.

My kids are addicted to this cartoon and it is absolute torture for my husband and I. I love certain cartoons (Adventure Time, Regular Show) and I find others to be pleasant tolerances (Ninja Turtles, Mystery Incorporated, Star Wars Rebels). But this cartoon makes me cringe every time it is on.

Pacman and the Ghostly Adventures centers on the daily struggle between Pac World and the lame, unfunny, annoyingly voiced ghosts from the netherworld. In fact, on the topic of voices, every voice in this cartoon is like nails on a chalkboard.

I understand that this cartoon is aimed at 7-9 old kids, but why on earth is the writing so, so terrible and preschoolish? I feel like my kids are tuned into Disney Jr., which is aimed at preschool aged kiddos. There is potential in terms of interesting story arches, but the writers entirely miss the mark. Pacman lost his parents shortly after a massive civil war that happened on Pacworld, the entire division of Pacpeople and ghosts is a result of the outcome of the war, and there are multiple backstories that are potentially dark and mysterious. The writers barely explore these subplots and it is a shame, because kids can follow sophisticated story lines. Honestly. Oh, the fart, pimple, and burping jokes are nonstop as well. Yay. fun.

Good luck staying sane if your kids run across this tripe. It is painful.

I love this show for the clean animation and Erin Matthews' performance as PAC-MAN is amazing. Also, the stories are well written. The Ghost Gang (Blinky, Pinky, Inky, and Clyde) are my favorite characters. Betrayus is also a lot of fun. Pinky and Pac-Man are one of the best couples. The only things I didn't like were two: First, Cylindria and Spiral. They are torture to me. They both interfere with the story. I really don't like them and wanted them to be taken out the story. And finally, the cruelty that sometimes appears against the Ghost Gang. Eaten or crushed. Well, my conclusion about the program is: half good, half bad.

GHosT CHOMPING AT HIs FeeT Pacs OUR HeRO

PAC JUST CAN'T Be BeAT YeAH HAHAHA

Pac-Man yellow, Pac extreme He's a chowing down machine Ghosts, monsters, ghouls, and only one can stop them

#PacManSweep #GetThemFries.